Nov 30, 2012

ASEAN - The New War on Drugs: ASEAN Style

ASEAN nations are stepping up their fight against illegal drugs as other
parts of the world are taking a much different approach.

The pledge by ASEAN leaders to
intensify campaigns to create a drug-free ASEAN by 2015 is increasingly out of
step with international trends which, according to the recent findings of The
Global Commission on Drug Policy, increasingly favor drug policy reforms like
decriminalization and treating addiction as a public health issue.

Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, a member
of the Global Commission on Drug Policy told a Bangkok forum that the war on
drugs is a failure. Citing the commission’s recent report, Kazatchkine said,
“We recommend immediate major reforms of the global prohibition regime to halt
the spread of HIV infection…” and other health problems.

Many countries around the world
seem to agree. In Latin America, for instance, many governments have declared
that the war on drugs has failed and are instead searching for a new, more
common sense approach to the problem.

In Argentina and Mexico the
possession of small quantities of certain drugs has recently been decriminalized.
This followed Brazil partially decriminalizing drugs through a series of laws
in the middle part of last decade.

Similarly, a majority of voters
in the U.S. states of Colorado and Washington recently approved referendums
legalizing the personal use of marijuana (marijuana is still illegal under
federal statutes, which technically takes precedence over state laws). Many
other states have legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, while
others, like New York State, are considering decriminalization. Meanwhile, many
European countries– including the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain have also
decriminalized drugs

Doing so has often proved
remarkably successful, resulting in lower HIV rates and even, in some cases, a
decline in drug usage. For example, a 2009 CATO Institute study of Portugal's
decision to decriminalize drugs in 2001 concluded: "In virtually every
category of any significance, Portugal, since decriminalization, has
outperformed the vast majority of other states that continue to adhere to a
criminalization regime."

ASEAN stands in stark contrast to
these examples as member nations are clinging to tough anti-drug laws that
champion aggressive law enforcement measures and the detention of 300,000 drug
users and sex-workers outside the normal court system in compulsory
rehabilitation centers.

Most shockingly, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Vietnam, and Singapore still impose the death penalty for narcotic
offenses. In some cases, narcotic crimes require mandatory death sentences. Not
surprisingly, many drug-addicts are afraid to seek treatment for fear of being
jailed… or worse.

Nor does change appear to be
imminent. In Thailand last year the government of Prime Minister Yingluck
Shinawatra (sister of ousted PM Thaksin) declared a new “war on drugs” in the name of a “zero
tolerance” policy. Gen. Adul
Saengsingkaew deputy national police chief was quoted by the Bangkok Post as
stating, “The war on drugs now is going much better than it was under the previous
government. Actually, it is even better than under the Thaksin Shinawatra
administration which initiated this policy in 2001.”

The fact that the police chief
cited Thaksin’s harsh crackdown on drugs in 2002 that led to as many as 2,700
deaths as a benchmark of success, is emblematic of the issue. Amnesty
International and other human rights groups condemned the policy that
encouraged this spate of extra-judicial killings, and undermined basic legal
principles of bringing suspects before a
court.

Thai police statistics show that
arrests for drug related charges have risen by 14% this year, while
drug-related prosecutions have increased by 8%. Already drug offenders
constitute 65% of Thailand’s incarcerated population. With prisons overflowing
in the country, it’s unsustainable to continue increasing the number of
imprisoned drug offenders.

Furthermore, incarceration is
unlikely to produce much in the way of results. As IPDC executive director Ann
Fordham points out, “Many of those now incarcerated in Thailand’s prisons are
likely to be low-level traders and drug users, as they are more easy targets
for police, rather than large scale traffickers and organized criminals.”

Dr. Michel Kazatchkine of the
Global Commission on Drug Policy points adds that, far from being a success
story, Thailand’s war on drugs has “failed by every metric you can think
of.” He is particularly critical of the
government’s failure to adequately address the spread of HIV among people who
inject drugs.

UNAIDS data show that in
Indonesia over 36% of individuals who inject drugs are HIV-positive. In
Cambodia the number is nearly one-in-four addicts who inject their drugs, while
Burma and Thailand have rates of 22%.

“Based on the evidence
highlighted in our report, we know that countries that treat addictions as a
health issue are winning the fight against HIV,” says Dr.Kazatchkine.

Thousands more are detained in
drug detention centers often run by police or military authorities, with very
little expert treatment or other forms of rehabilitation available. Both the
United Nations and Human Rights Watch have called for the closure of these
centers in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Some go further. For example, the
Gloria Lai of the International Drug Policy Consortium, a coalition of NGO’s
involved in drug policy reform, explains that the group is campaigning to put
an end to “the stigma and marginalization suffered by people who use drugs, and
the disproportionately severe, punitive measures for personal drug use and possession."

The consortium’s goals have been
tacitly endorsed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon,who issued a statement in
2008 stating, “No one should be stigmatized or discriminated against because of
their dependence on drugs. I look to Asian Governments to amend outdated
criminal laws that criminalize the most vulnerable sections of society, and
take all the measures needed to ensure they live in dignity.”

While ASEAN countries are clearly
lagging behind other parts of the world, the reform lobby has been encouraged
by many countries’ new willingness to at least consider alternative approaches.

In September, IPDC and the
Transnational Institute (TNI) co-hosted a high-level seminar in Bangkok with
the Thai Ministry of Justice Rights and Liberties Protection Department, which
discussed how to more effectively manage drug problems in the context of public
health issues.

Similarly, this year Indonesia
and Malaysian government officials participated in a study tour in Portugal to
learn about that country’s policies of decriminalization and offering voluntary
treatment services for drug addicts.

Already the interaction is having
positive results notes Nicholas Thomson of the John Hopkins School of Public
Health and the Center for Law Enforcement and Public Health.

“I think it is clear that Asia
can learn from Portugal. In Malaysia the rolling out and scaling up of harm
reduction projects has been in part a result of senior police figures in
Malaysia attending study tours in Portugal,” Thomson says.

The reformers argue that reducing
HIV rates and improving community health treatment for addicts are far more
realistic and worthy objectives than the impossible task of making the ASEAN
region drug-free by 2015.

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